At length gave utterance to these words constrained: O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false worm, of whomsoever taught To counterfeit man's voice; true in our fall, False in our promised rising; since our eyes Opened we find, indeed, and find we know Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got; Bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know, Which leaves us naked thus, of honor void, Of innocence, of faith, of purity,
Our wonted ornaments now soiled and stained, And in our faces evident the signs
Of foul concupiscence; whence evil store ; Even shame, the last of evils; of the first Be sure then. How shall I behold the face Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy And rapture so oft beheld? Those heavenly shapes Will dazzle now this earthly, with their blaze Insufferably bright. Oh! might I here In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured, where highest woods, impenetrable To star or sun light, spread their umbrage broad And brown as evening! Cover me, ye pines! Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more! But let us now, as in bad plight, devise What best may, for the present, serve to hide The parts of each from other, that seem most To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen. Some tree, whose broad smooth leaves, together sewed, And girded on our loins, may cover round Those middle parts; that this new-comer, Shame, There sit not, and reproach us as unclean.
So counseled he, and both together went Into the thickest wood; there soon they chose The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renowned,
But such as, at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother-tree, a pillared shade,
High over-arched, and echoing walks between ; There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. Those leaves They gathered, broad as Amazonian targe, And, with what skill they had, together şewed, To gird their waist: vain covering, if to hide Their guilt and dreaded shame! Oh, how unike To that first naked glory! Such, of late, Columbus found the American, so girt
With feathered cincture; naked else, and wild Among the trees on isles and woody shores. Thus fenced, and, as they thought, their shame in part Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind,
They sat them down to weep. Nor only tears Rained at their eyes, but high winds worse within Began to rise; high passions, anger, hate, Mistrust, suspicion, discord, and shook sore Their inward state of mind, calm region once, And full of peace, now tost and turbulent. For understanding ruled not, and the will Heard not her lore; both in subjection now To sensual appetite, who, from beneath, Usurping over sovereign reason, claimed Superior sway. From thus distempered breast, Adam, estranged in look and altered style, Speech intermitted thus to Eve renewed :
Would thou hadst hearkened to my words and stayed With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence possessed thee; we had then
Remained still happy; not as now, despoiled
Of all our good; shamed, naked, miserable !
Let none henceforth seek needless cause to approve
The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek
Such proof, conclude they then begin to fail.
To whom, soon moved with touch of blame, thus Eve:
What words have passed thy lips, Adam, severe ? Imputest thou that to my default or will Of wandering, as thou callest it, which who knows But might as ill have happened thou being by, Or to thyself, perhaps? Hadst thou been there, Or here the attempt, thou couldst not have discerned Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake; No ground of enmity between us known, Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm. Was I to have never parted from thy side ? As good have grown there still, a lifeless rib. Being as I am, why didst not thou, the head, Command me absolutely not to go, Going into such danger, as thou saidst? Too facile, then, thou didst not much gainsay : Nay, didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me.
To whom, then first incensed, Adam replied : Is this the love, is this the recompense Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, expressed Immutable when thou wert lost, not I; Who might have lived, and 'joyed immortal bliss, Yet willingly chose rather death with thee? And am I now upbraided as the cause
Of thy transgressing? Not enough severe, It seems, in my restraint: what could I more? I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking Enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this had been force,
And force upon free-will here hath no place. But confidence then bore thee on; secure
Either to meet no danger, or to find Matter of glorious trial; and, perhaps, I also erred in overmuch admiring What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought No evil durst attempt thee. But I rue
That error now, which is become my crime, And thou the accuser. Thus it shall befall Him who, to worth in woman overtrusting, Lets her will rule: restraint she will not brook;
And left to herself, if evil thence ensue, She first his weak indulgence will accuse.
Thus they in mutual accusation spert The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning; And of their vain contest appeared no end.
MAN's transgression known, the guardian angels forsake Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be by them prevented. He sends His Son to judge the transgressors; who descends, and gives sentence accordingly; then, in pity, clothes them both, and re-ascends: Sin and Death, sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan, their sire, up to the place of man. To make the way easier from Hell to this world to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the track that Satan first made; then, preparing for earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell; their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium; in full assembly relates, with boasting, his success against man; instead of applause is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed, with himself also, suddenly into serpents, according to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the forbidden tree springing up before them, they greedily reaching to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of Sin and Death; God foretells the final victory of His Son over them, and the renewing of all things; but, for the present, commands His angels to make several alterations in the heavens and elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, heavily bewails, rejects the condolemen of Eve; she persists, and at length appeases him: then, to evade the curse likely to fall on the offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways, which he approves not; but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should be revenged on the serpent; and exhorts her, with him, to seek peace of the offended Deity, by repentance and supplication.
EANWHILE the heinous and despiteful act
Of Satan done in Paradise; and how
He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve, Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,
Was known in Heaven - for what can 'scape the eye Of God all-seeing, or deceive his heart Omniscient? who, in all things wise and just, Hindered not Satan to attempt the mind Of man, with strength entire, and free-will armed Complete to have discovered and repulsed Whatever wiles of foe or seeming friend.
For still they knew, and ought to have still remembered, The high injunction, not to taste that fruit,
Whoever tempted; which they, not obeying, Incurred - what could they less? - the penalty;
And manifold in sin, deserved to fall.
Up into Heaven from Paradise, in haste,
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